EBay acquires Magento Ecommerce Solution

Jun 6, 2011 5:06 pm

Magento is an open source ecommerce web application launched on March 31, 2008. It was created by Varien, using various open source technologies including Zend framework and PHP. Varien is now Magento Inc. with 260+ employees.

Magento is a feature-rich eCommerce platform built on open-source technology that provides online merchants with unprecedented flexibility and control over the look, content and functionality of their eCommerce store. Magento’s intuitive administration interface features powerful marketing, search engine optimization and catalog-management tools to give merchants the power to create sites that are tailored to their unique business needs. Designed to be completely scalable and backed by Varien’s support network, Magento offers companies the ultimate eCommerce solution.

Magento Enterprise Edition is a paid version of Magento intended for larger ecomerce websites.

In February of 2011, Ebay announced it had made an investment in Magento and acquired 49% ownership. Now Ebay is purchasing the remain ownership of Magento.

By purchasing Magento, eBay is creating what it calls X.Commerce, an open platform that can offer a wide array of end-to-end services to merchants, providing everything from local inventory data and discounts to historical information on pricing, transactions and browsing. It then offers tools for payment and helps close the loop on transactions so retailers know how it all came together. EBay, PayPal and GSI, a digital marketing and e-commerce company that eBay is in the process of buying, would provide some of the basic building blocks for the platform. But X.Commerce would also incorporate other eBay assets and enlist the help of developers who could build on the operating system.